02 February 2012 3:11 PM

Just another ordinary day in the House of Commons’ world of female victimhood.

Yesterday, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Increasing Women’s representation in Parliament hosted ‘Female politicians and the Media’. Sadly the event failed to rouse much interest amongst men. Indeed, there were almost no men present.

Males at hand to discuss this critical topic were the panel Chairman George Pascoe-Watson, a former political editor of The Sun, a scattering of male interns and one or two blokes from the BBC. It was a poignant moment when Angie Bray MP commented on the male-free nature of proceedings and suggested that we could have had more of a debate had we had males in the room. Hear hear, came my reply!

George P-W opened the meeting by asking whether the media should think about the way they help women in Parliament. Has George gone soft, or was this just an opening gambit? The media is not there to ‘help’. Apart from the BBC, the media in this country are run as businesses and as such they must appeal to their target audiences. The media industry is a people business and people buy stories about people and human interest is interesting.

So far, so normal, until we wandered on to the topic of breasts.

Not politicians as such, but some on the panel were concerned about Page 3 girls, complaining that it is disgraceful that topless women are allowed opposite the main political page. This salvo morphed into a conversation about a female politician who had a very serious message to get across, but the media concentrated on her cleavage. Anne McElvoy, in a moment of clarity, suggested that she put her breasts away. Politics is the business of peacocks – male and female peacocks – and if you can’t match your image to your message, best not try.

More moaning ensued about the coverage of female politicians, at a lowly 22 per cent. But then it was pointed out that roughly 22 per cent of Parliamentarians are women. So no points there.

So to the turn of Janet Street-Porter, a doyenne of the media over many decades and indeed of this newspaper. She demolished the trifling complaints and told them to stop whinging. She railed at one MP who called the Daily Mail ‘fluffy bunny’, telling her that the Daily Mail has more female readers and writers than the Guardian. You get the media you deserve, and she would rather have her nails pulled out than appear in GQ. Anne McElvoy agreed, pointing out that the Daily Mail is a serious middle-market newspaper. Quite right too. In reality, they’d all cut their right arms off to get into this fluffy bunny.

Janet went on to say that when she worked at the BBC she was asked to sit on its equality committee. She retorted that she was superior to that and the whole concept was a backward step for women. She was sounding a bit like Jeremy Clarkson, but in a good way.

Angie Bray pointed out the blindingly obvious - the issue of the percentage of women in the media is not something that ordinary women in the street lose sleep over (or, given their lack of attendance, many men either). Media is like the weather, particularly if you have chosen to go into public life - unsettling, stormy and sometimes not fair; but you dress accordingly and take an umbrella. And she is absolutely right. If, as a man or woman in public life, you don’t like the way the media regards you, take a step back. You have a choice.

But the point of the discussion was gender – we were being asked to believe that women get worse treatment by the media than men. Angie was the only one brave enough to broach the subject and there were no men at hand to defend their patch. She noted that papers are obsessed with Cameron’s bald spot and his comb-over, Clegg’s growing/shrinking paunch, Ed’s voice and grey patch and Ken Clark’s Hush Puppies - it’s human interest, it sells papers. And she is right, that’s how the world and the media works. It is interested in the things that interest its audience. But the truth is, it is not a male/female thing at all.

George P-W turned to veteran politician Gillian, the Baronness Shepherd, for her thoughts. She advised the girls not to get into the habit of seeing themselves as victims – it is women’s worst enemy. Wise words.

Share this article:

Comments

You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

Post a comment

Comments are moderated, and will not appear on this weblog until the moderator has approved them. They must not exceed 500 words. Web links cannot be accepted, and may mean your whole comment is not published.

JANICE ATKINSON-SMALL

Janice is a director of a new, centre-right think tank, WomenOn ... which seeks to challenge the left dominated Guardianista feminist view of the world of women which does not represent ordinary women. Women On … researches the issues facing women today, and promotes ideas and policies which enable all women to reach their full potential – economically, socially, culturally and politically, but not at the expense of men.
In politics she was the director of Conservative Action for Electoral Reform (but did not support AV) and had provided communications for MPs, MEPs and campaign groups. She stood for the Conservative Party in the 2010 General Election in Batley and Spen but is now a member of UKIP.
Prior to becoming involved in politics, Janice ran her own successful marketing communications business. She is divorced with two teenage sons and is about to re-marry.
www.womenon.org